Linux

Installation packages for Audacity are provided by many GNU/Linux and Unix-like distributions. Use the distribution’s usual package manager (where available) to install Audacity. If necessary, you could try searching for an appropriate Audacity package on rpmseek.

Alternatively you can build the latest Audacity tagged release from our source code.

The current release version for Linux is Audacity 2.2.2

Please note that Audacity 2.3.0 for Linux is considered ‘experimental’ and may crash. In particular, real-time preview effects will crash when applied.

Incorrectly built packages

Some distributions offer older Audacity 2.0.6, 2.1.0 or 2.1.1 that were incorrectly built against too recent wxWidgets (3.0.x). In that case, obtain a package for Audacity 2.1.2 or later (this might require updating to a later version of your distribution), or build the older version of Audacity against wxWidgets 2.8.12. Audacity 2.3.0 may be built against wxWidgets 3.0.2 or 3.1.1.

Ubuntu/Linux Mint

PPA packages for Audacity are available for Ubuntu and corresponding version of Linux Mint, but note that Audacity 2.3.0 is not recommended for production work. Uninstall any packaged version of Audacity before installing this PPA.

If you add independent sources to your Ubuntu software sources then “Ubuntu Software Center” and software updates will offer unstable daily development builds of Audacity. Don’t install those unless that is what you really want.

Chromebooks

Audacity does not run on Chrome OS. Although not officially supported, it is possible in principle to run Audacity on a Chromebook under a Chrome version of Linux Ubuntu.

System Requirements

We recommend using the latest version of GNU/Linux from your distribution that is compatible with your hardware specifications. Audacity will run best with at least 1GB RAM and a 2 GHz processor.

Because Audacity was originally written when computers were less powerful, you may be able to run it on much less powerful hardware too. Simple recording is possible on 700 MHz Raspberry Pi, using a USB Microphone. However, Pi operating systems are not officially supported and Audacity may be less stable on them than on desktop operating systems.